1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an additional information read/write system for reading and writing additional information, the system having a drive system for playing back content updated based on additional information provided from an ID/additional information distributing apparatus. It also relates to an additional information read/write method, an additional information read/write program, a computer-readable program storage medium storing the additional information read/write program, and the ID/additional information distributing apparatus for distributing identification numbers (IDs) (hereinafter referred to as IDs) and additional information.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various content data (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9ccontentxe2x80x9d) stored in storage media, such as an optical disc, is distributed owing to the development of the information industry in recent years. Such content includes electronic data concerning literary works and electronic data concerning movies, music, and images. The content is played back by a drive system and displayed on a display in the drive system or audio-output by an audio output device. For example, when content having the same title is written on a plurality of known optical discs, the same content is played back from each of the optical discs. In other words, customers can enjoy only defined and undifferentiated content when the content having the same title is written on the known optical discs.
However, when the customer owns an optical disc having such defined and undifferentiated content with the same title as the content of optical discs owned by his/her friends, he/she can know the content of his/her optical disc from the information of his/her friend, thus losing his/her interest in the content. Furthermore, since the content having the same title contains the same data, a customer or a family commonly avoids purchasing a plurality of optical discs having the content with the same title.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an additional information read/write system, an additional information read/write method, an additional information read/write program, a computer-readable program storage medium storing the additional information read/write program, and an ID/additional information distributing apparatus, all of which can update content having the same title to stimulate a customer""s desire to buy optical discs having the written content.
The present invention provides, in its first aspect, an additional information read/write system having an ID/additional information distributing apparatus, an ID postscribing apparatus, and a drive system. The ID/additional information distributing apparatus includes a managing unit for managing IDs to be postscribed to optical discs and additional information for updating content read from the each of the optical discs and a distributing unit for distributing the IDs and the additional information corresponding to the IDs. The ID postscribing apparatus includes a transmitting and receiving unit for requesting the IDs from the ID/additional information distributing apparatus to receive the IDs and a postscribing unit for postscribing the received IDs on the optical discs. The drive system includes a transmitting and receiving unit for transmitting the IDs read from the optical discs to the ID/additional information distributing apparatus and receiving the additional information distributed from the ID/additional information distributing apparatus, a writing unit for writing the received additional information on a storage medium, and a playback unit for playing back the content updated based on the additional information from the storage medium.
It is preferable that the content be a software game.
In such a case, partially different content can be played back from optical discs on which the same software game is written.
It is preferable that the additional information be concerned with new storylines that are partially substituted for old storylines of the software game.
In such a case, since old storylines of the software game are partially replaced with new storylines to update the content, the customer can enjoy the software games without being bored with them even when he/she has purchased a plurality of optical discs.
It is preferable that the additional information be concerned with a game character or a game-element image of the software game.
In such a case, since the game character and the game-element image can be updated, the customer can enjoy the software games without being bored with them even when he/she has purchased a plurality of optical discs.
The present invention provides, in its second aspect, an additional information read/write method including the steps of: postscribing an ID distributed from an ID/additional information distributing apparatus onto an optical disc, in an ID postscribing apparatus; reading the ID, in a drive system for playing back content from the optical disc having the ID; transmitting the ID to the ID/additional information distributing apparatus, in the drive system; distributing additional information for updating the content read from the optical disc, the additional information being managed per ID, to the drive system in association with the ID, in the ID/additional information distributing apparatus; storing the received additional information in a storage medium, the additional information being distributed from the ID/additional information distributing apparatus, in the drive system; and playing back the content updated based on the additional information read from the storage medium, in the drive system.
The present invention provides, in its third aspect, an additional information read/write program rendering an ID/additional information distributing apparatus to manage IDs to be postscribed to optical discs and additional information for updating content read from each of the optical discs and to distribute the IDs and the additional information corresponding to the IDs; rendering an ID postscribing apparatus to request the IDs from the ID/additional information distributing apparatus to receive the IDs, and to postscribe the received IDs on the optical disc; and rendering a drive system to transmit the IDs read from the optical discs to the ID/additional information distributing apparatus and receive the additional information distributed from the ID/additional information distributing apparatus and to play back the content updated based on the additional information read from a storage medium storing the received additional information.
The present invention provides, in its fourth aspect, a computer-readable program storage medium storing an additional information read/write program. The additional information read/write program renders an ID/additional information distributing apparatus to manage IDs to be postscribed to optical discs and additional information for updating content read from each of the optical discs and to distribute the IDs and the additional information corresponding to the IDs; renders an ID postscribing apparatus to request the IDs from the ID/additional information distributing apparatus to receive the IDs, and to postscribe the received IDs onto the optical disc; and renders a drive system to transmit the IDs read from the optical discs to the ID/additional information distributing apparatus and receive the additional information distributed from the ID/additional information distributing apparatus and to play back the content updated based on the additional information read from a storage medium storing the received additional information.
The present invention provides, in its fifth aspect, an ID/additional information distributing apparatus for distributing IDs to be postscribed to optical discs to an ID postscribing apparatus and for distributing additional information for updating content read from each of the optical discs to a drive system for playing back the content. The ID/additional information distributing apparatus has an ID/additional information management unit for managing the IDs postscribed to the optical disc and the additional information corresponding to the IDs and a distributing unit for distributing the IDs to the ID postscribing apparatus in response to a request from the ID postscribing apparatus and for distributing the additional information corresponding to the IDs read from each of the optical discs by the drive system to the drive system.
With such features of the present invention described above, the ID postscribing apparatus postscribes the IDs distributed from the ID/additional information distributing apparatus on the optical discs. Then, the drive system of the customer reads the IDs of the optical discs and sends the read IDs to the ID/additional information distributing apparatus. The ID/additional information distributing apparatus, which manages the additional information for updating the content read from each of the optical discs per ID, distributes the additional information to the drive system in association with the received IDs. The drive system receives the additional information distributed from the ID/additional information distributing apparatus and stores it in the storage medium. The drive system then plays back the content updated based on the additional information read from the storage medium.
The above and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become clear from the following description of the preferred embodiments taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.